The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was established in
March 1933 as part of the emergency relief measures necessitated by the
worsening economic crisis of the Great Depression. Initially when newly-elected President
Franklin D. Roosevelt created the CCC it was known as Emergency Conservation
Work (ECW), but by 1937 when Congress renewed the organization, it was renamed
the Civilian Conservation Corps, and often called “Roosevelt’s Tree Army”. As
one of the first public works programs of his New Deal it was designed to
encourage conservation as well as build the nation’s youth into good citizens
through outdoor labor that was take the “unemployed out into healthful
surroundings”[1]
and “…eliminate….The threat that enforced idleness brings to spiritual and
moral stability.”[2] The CCC would be in operation from late March
1933 until early 1942, ending primarily because the nation was then at war and
everyone was needed for the war effort, at home and abroad.
The logistics of how to get young men from the East where
the majority of the unemployed were, to camps in the West, where the majority
of the work was, was immediately an issue.
The Army would quickly mobilize the nation’s transportation system, and
began moving trainloads and truckloads of enrollees from the induction centers
in the East to work camps throughout the nation. To staff these camps the Army tapped into its
reserve and regular officer corps. It
wasn’t just the Army though that managed the camps, because even the Marines,
Navy, and Coast Guard had officers commanding companies, but that be as it may,
the Army officers made up the bulk of the company commanders for the ECW/CCC.
The Departments of Agriculture and Interior would identify
what work needed to be done by the ECW/CCC and then organize those
projects. The majority of this work was
in the national forests, but there was also coordination with each state for
work in the state forests and parks. In
states where there was a need for soil conservation work, there were camps set
up for that as well. The Department of
Labor would be tasked with selecting and enrolling the young men for the
program. Much of this task was delegated
to the relief offices in each state, and then further yet to local relief
offices.
A quota system was established to fill the ranks of the
Emergency Conservation Work (ECW). This
quota system was devised by the Department of Labor, and was based primarily on
the population of the individual states and the number of families on the
relief rolls. Once these factors were
determined, each county in every state was given a quota of young men that were
eligible and that needed to be enrolled.
This system obviously favored the high populated states in the East over
the states in the West. For example, in
April 1933, the quota for Washington state was 3,250 out of a population of 1.6
million and Pend Oreille County’s quota of that 3,250 was fourteen.[3] There were also more young men found on the
relief rolls in the East than in the West.
This quota system would be in effect for the duration of the
ECW/CCC. It was also determined that the
enrollment periods would be January, April, July, and October however
applications could be submitted year-round.
Selection of enrollees was the responsibility of each
county’s Department of Public Welfare based on the given quota number from the
State Department of Public Welfare.
Applications were received in Pend Oreille County by a Miss Davis,
according to the local newspaper, The
Newport Miner. The applicants were
between seventeen and twenty-three years old, unmarried, citizens of the United
States, unemployed, and needing employment.
Preference was given to young men from families that were dependent on
Works Program earnings or that were on county direct relief rolls. Those doing the selection of the enrollees
were also advised to choose those that were “clean-cut, ambitious, and willing
to work.”[4]
By June 1933 the ECW/CCC was accepting applications from American Indians as
well as veterans of both the Spanish-American War and World War I. The American Indian enrollees were typically
sent to their work projects during the day and then returned to their homes at
night. The veterans were given special
camps that were typically more lenient than the regular camps.[5] African-American enrollees were generally
segregated from the white enrollees in camps of their own with white camp
commanders.
Once enrollees were selected they were then sent to the
nearest Army recruiting station, given a physical examination and inoculated
for a variety of diseases including smallpox.
If the enrollee passed the physical examination he was then sent to a
two-week conditioning camp on a nearby military installation. This practice was stopped by 1934, in favor
of shipping the enrollees straight to the ECW/CCC camp that they were going to
be stationed at. At this conditioning
camp, the enrollees were prepared for some of the hard work that they were
going to be faced with at the ECW/CCC camps.
Nothing resembling military training was done however, as this type of
militarization was a concern of many in the nation. The enrollee would also take an oath of
enrollment that they would obey the rules and regulations of the ECW/CCC,
protect the government’s property, take care of the clothing that they were
issued, and agree to stay for the entire six months.
At the conditioning camp (or before they were shipped to
their ECW/CCC camps) enrollees were issued blue denim work shirts and pants,
heavy black shoes or boots, and a modified Army dress uniform. This uniform consisted of black shoes, woolen
olive drab trousers and coat, khaki shirts, and a black tie. There would also be red chevrons for
sleeves. The enrollee would be allowed
to bring a suitcase with their toilet articles, one suit for trips to the
nearest town, and anything else he might absolutely need for six months. They would even be issued a handbook for what
they could expect and what would be expected of them while they were in the
Civilian Conservation Corps.[6]
Enrollees would receive $30 a month, however $25 of it had
to be sent back home. The remaining money could be used by the enrollee to
purchase things at the camp canteen or be spent when they were allowed to visit
the nearby towns. By 1934, enrollees
could receive as much as $45 a month (with a specific amount also being sent
back home) if they were placed in camp leadership positions. The amount of money that was sent back home
was instrumental in taking care of their families. This allotment money would
also boost the economy in that local purchases in communities near the camps
averaged $5000 a month, keeping many small businesses from going under.[7]
The enrollees would enroll in the ECW/CCC for six months,
however they could re-enroll for up to two years. If they received outside permanent
employment, which could be proven with a letter from the employer the enrollee
could leave before his six months was up.
Otherwise, leaving the ECW/CCC before their six months was up could
bring a dishonorable discharge. There
were many though that re-enrolled up to the two year limit. Once they were honorable discharged from the
ECW/CCC was over, enrollees were given a suit of clothing and then
transportation back to their homes or their place of enlistment, which ever was
closest. In the nine years that the
Civilian Conservation Corps were in existence, 80,000 American Indians, 250,000
war veterans, 25,000 Locally Employed Men (LEMs), and approximately nine million
junior enrollees (17-23 year olds) participated in the program.
Once the enrollees’ time was completed they were sent to
their work camps. For some enrollees
they were fortunate enough to stay near their homes, but there were many
enrollees that were sent to other states and even across the nation. The transportation of young men from East to
West started 24 May 1933 when thirty-two companies were sent from Fort Monroe,
Virginia and Fort Meade, Maryland to Utah and Idaho, respectively.[8] The transporting of men to the West would
continue throughout the nine-year history of the Civilian Conservation Corps in
order to make room for more enrollees.
These men would be sent from the East to the West to work in the forest
work camps planting trees, building roads and bridges, and fighting blister rust
and forest fires.
The early work camps in 1933 were simply tents, but these
would be replaced with simple wooden structures by the end of the first summer
in 1933. By the spring of 1934 the Army had designed a wooden building that had
panels and interchangeable parts, one that was easy to construct and take down,
and one that was also able to be mass produced.
This new building type became the standard at all camps and all the
pieces to them were being mass produced by 1935. The buildings were simply covered with tar
paper or the wood was creosoted, and the barracks (especially in the colder
areas) had a large wood-burning pot-bellied stove in the middle of the room for
heat. Each barrack also had a shower
room with flushing toilets.
The standard main camp was in a “U” shape of twenty-four
structures all constructed of wood. Each
of these standard main camps had barracks, officers’ quarters, a mess hall, a
recreation hall that also contained the camp canteen or PX, a garage, a
hospital or infirmary, and a schoolhouse all arranged around a cleared space
for assemblies and sporting events. The
side camps, also referred to as spike or fly camps were small camps away from
the larger main camps were used extensively in the West. These spike camps were all tent camps, and
were highly mobile. They would be used
to handle jobs that didn’t require the entire complement of men to accomplish,
although everyone would get a “chance” to work in a spike camp at one point. Some of the jobs that were done out of the
spike camps were: planting trees, insect control (especially bark beetles),
blister rust control, building lookouts, and fighting forest fires.
[1]
Roosevelt, Franklin D. “Three Essentials for Unemployment Relief” Reprinted in The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin
D. Roosevelt, Vol. 2, 1933 (New York City: Random House, 1938), p. 80.
[2]
Roosevelt, Franklin D. “Three Essentials for Unemployment Relief” p. 80
[3] The Newport Miner, 20 April 1933.
[4]
Paige, John C. The Civilian Conservation
Corps and the National Park Service, 1933-1942: An Administrative History.
The National Park Service and Department of the Interior, 1985. Located at http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/paige/index.htm (Last Modified 4
April, 2000).
[5]
Paige, John C.
[6]
Hoyt, Ray. Your CCC: A Handbook for
Enrollees. (Washington, D.C.: Happy Days Publishing, Co., Inc. (1940.).
[7]
CCClegacy.org
[8]
American Forests, “With the Civilian Conservation Corps” Publisher The American
Forestry Association. July 1933.
